Actually I wanted to write a blog as several of my colleagues, but now that we have this nifty new feature there's no reason to bother with formatting all the pics and stuff

So this was it. The decade which saw me turning into a metalhead. Actually I've been listening to metal since 17 years now, but not on a regular basis. This changed (to the better) when I joined this site in the good old days of MSR. Agalloch, Anathema and Tristania got me used to growls, Immortal and Agathodaimon to extreme metal as a whole and soon enough I was hooked to the vast plethora of styles which are to be found in heavy metal. The following list presents my personal top 50 of this decade. The order isn't really set in stone, neither is my musical taste, but at least the top 10 are somewhat fixed. Especially the 2009 releases, of which none made it into my top 25, might not stand the test of time. And please don't message me because you disagree with some of the genres, they are neither there to be discussed nor to educate, but to give an impression what the bands sound like. If you have about the same (broad) taste as I have, but aren't familiar with some of these releases, try to get your hands on them. You won't regret it

1.Negură Bunget - OM

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Redemption - The Origins Of Ruin

4.Dark Tranquillity - Character

5.Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro

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- My TOP 75 from 90s (and 80s), 00s and 10s.
- Each TOP 75 ordered from my most favourite down.
- One album for every band in one TOP 75.
- Only full-lengths or EPs/demos with more than half an hour.

Description includes: Genre (traditional/true BM bands are labeled with their countries, e.g. Norwegian Black), year and my personal favourite song of the particular album with link.

Hall of Fame (bands in each time period): Agalloch, Blut Aus Nord, Enslaved, Immortal, Nokturnal Mortum, Summoning

1.

2.Windir - Arntor

3.Paysage d'Hiver - Paysage D'Hiver

4.Blut Aus Nord - Ultima Thulée

5.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

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Only 1 album per band;
Rating:
10: 1-4.
9: 5-32.
8: 33-50.

1.Summoning - Stronghold

2.Dornenreich - Bitter Ist's Dem Tod Zu Dienen

3.Shining - V - Halmstad

4.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

5.Kampfar - Kvass

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Some albums are really good. Many of these are good all the way around. And, in many cases, there is a single song that stands out, sometimes it's the last song on the album. This is a list of those songs.

For a more in depth look at this, I've codified each into a given category:
Type 1 - 'The long song at the end.' Often the title track. These have a tendency to be most well written and dynamic pieces on the album.

1.!T.O.O.H.! - Order And Punishment (Řád A Trest)

2.Abigail Williams - Becoming

3.Agalloch - The Mantle

4.Amon Amarth - Versus The World

5.Anekdoten - Vemod

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My favourite black metal albums listed and ranked, all varieties within the black metal genre.

1.Summoning - Oath Bound

2.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

3.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

4.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

5.Mgła - Exercises In Futility

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Comprehensive list of my top 50 metal albums from the previous decade. Though a number of non-metal albums would make my 50, I have excluded them here.

1.Primordial - The Gathering Wilderness

2.Agalloch - The Mantle

3.Negură Bunget - OM

4.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

5.Green Carnation - Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness

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1.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

2.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

3.Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss

4.Bathory - Blood Fire Death

5.Setherial - Nord

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1.Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

2.Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

3.Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark

4.Emperor - In The Nightside Eclipse

5.Satyricon - Nemesis Divina

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This is a list of some of my favorite speedy ripping Black and Blackened Death metal albums...

1.1349 - Hellfire

2.Abigail Williams - In The Shadow Of A Thousand Suns

3.Angelcorpse - The Inexorable

4.Anaal Nathrakh - Eschaton

5.Anagnorisis - Overton Trees

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1.Burzum - Filosofem

2.Dissection - Storm Of The Light's Bane

3.Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger

4.Emperor - Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk

5.Marduk - Rom 5:12

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A little something I threw together, the order matters but not entirely.

1.Deströyer 666 - Phoenix Rising

2.In Death I Beome - Black Wings, Grey Skies

3.Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter

4.Funeral Mist - Salvation

5.Watain - Sworn To The Dark

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As we go into 2011, I decided to look back on the last decade, and try and put together a list of what I believe are the highest quality, and favorite releases of the previous decade.

I believe "best" is something of a misnomer, since people's opinions of quality are biased to their tastes. So a more proper title would be "Best Releases that I Enjoyed from 2001-2010".

1.Deströyer 666 - Cold Steel... For An Iron Age

2.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

3.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

4.Cobalt - Gin

5.Behemoth - Demigod

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Favorite releases from 2007

1.Defeated Sanity - Psalms Of The Moribund

2.Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb

3.Odious Mortem - Cryptic Implosion

4.Deathspell Omega - Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum

5.Malignancy - Inhuman Grotesqueries

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Wow... A prize for whoever can guess which genre I was obsessed with in 2007... :

Plus my top three favourite tracks from each release. \m/

Honourable mentions:
Ava Inferi - The Silhouette (Gothic)
Machine Head - The Blackening (Groove)
Rotting Christ - Theogonia (Black)
Gospel Of The Horns - Realm Of The Damned (Black/Thrash)

1.Primordial - To The Nameless Dead

2.Candlemass - King Of The Grey Islands

3.Marduk - Rom 5:12

4.Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao

5.Immolation - Shadows In The Light

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1.Celtic Frost - Monotheist

2.Behemoth - Evangelion

3.Septicflesh - Communion

4.Behemoth - Demigod

5.Decapitated - Nihility

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